And... here I am.

The moment I walked in here my personality shifted. Not from magic. Or from force. But from a slither of something in the air that told me to shut up, listen and comply.

First of all, The Lycan Temple was gargantuan. It was humongous, with red stain glass windows, red marble floors, black pillars and the shape of a wolf head engraved into the ground.

Sardonix is seated in a line of 24 thrones.

Everyone is filled.

Sardonix, his pack. 8. Onyx, his pack. 8. Anubis, his pack. 8.

Anubis, Sardonix and Onyx sit on the middle most thrones, royal in their own right, Onyx is the middle king, with one left and right by his sides.

Left. S-A-R-D-O-N-I-X on the Throne of the Slaughterer. A throne made of cooked demon bone.

Middle. O-N-Y-X on the Throne of the Reflector. A throne made of silver.

Right. A-N-U-B-I-S on the Throne of the Enchanter. A throne made of gold.

Every Lycan has a specified throne. Offender. Defender. Blinder. Watcher. Each has a purpose. I had no idea they were so organised within their packs. It was all unspoken, between each other – until I was dragged into The Lycan Temple and made to witness their lore.

I stand on the red marble with my wings at attention by my sides, fully spread. I seem to be judged by all of them right now.

I guess the praying would soon commence, I just hoped someone would tell me my lines.

I look at Sardonix expectantly.

They are all in Lycan form, by the way.

No other female is here either, so I'm not sure where Silvia and the other whores are... or if Anubis had another bride after all this time. I did not know. But here I was, alone. The only female in the Temple.

"You've been fucked by all of us," Sardonix begins, "...we all agree... there is something wrong with you..."

"Queens are touched with insanity," Onyx drawls next, keeping in a snarl, "You were perceived as like that – however..."

"You're blind," Anubis finishes, lifting his nose at me, his nostrils flare as he looks me over as neutrally as possible.

"Your senses are dull," Sardonix takes over again, "This concerns us ALL."

When they say nothing more, I assume I must speak in turn.

I awkwardly scratch the top of my head, and ask very politely, "Why?"

"You cannot feel true fear, or true pain," Sardonix blinks once, "That's unacceptable."

"I have certainly felt terror," I explain, honestly, "When my heart races."

"A fleeting instinct," Onyx now snarls with half his fangs bared, "Hours later you sleep like a baby."

They both go quiet and they sideways glare at Anubis, waiting for his final points.

I see him hesitating. His aura is uncertain... tending toward... scared?

"Lycans have never had a fairy within their ranks before," Anubis begins, "...you're like a little thorn of glass in our feet... you enrage us, laugh and run without consequence. Therefore, we've ordered your final death. A true death."

Sardonix and Onyx nod in agreement.

Anubis sheds an actual tear.

They're serious?

I scratch my head again, confused.

"What?" I ask, "I don't – get it..."

First the Fairy Court wanted me dead.

Now, the Lycan Temple?

What was wrong with me?

"...there is only one alternative..." Onyx kicks a round thing off the ground at their feet that bounces down the steps and stops rolling by my toes. It's a perfect sphere, "...a little extra burden for you to swallow..."

"I am already poisoned on the inside," I complain.

"I was supposed to slaughter you immediately," Sardonix drawls, happy at my confusion, "...when I gained access to your brain, but I've judged your thoughts to be in favour of carrying a little burden. The weight of common sense is in that heavy stone. If you swallow it. You may live with us."

"If you wish to stay with us, to be a whore as you are, you'll die," Anubis speaks more firmly.

"Or... you can suggest an alternative," Onyx teases me with that, encouraging a line off me.

"In fae truth, I have no idea. What is so bad about swallowing a stone of common sense? It does not seem like a burden but a gift," I respond, casually leaning over and picking it up, ignoring their hissing a warning when my fingers reach for it. I've already picked it up though, and it lays heavy as a marble sized stone in the palm of my hand.

The same thing happens with this stone, as the rose quartz, although slower... and stranger.

I feel... it's deep weight... and a seeping into my body through my palm only.

Feelings I've never felt before.

Just mere glimpses of them.

I look over at the Lycans with renewed nervousness, as if seeing them for the first time, while my eyes narrow.

The demons before me are... more giant... uglier... smellier... the red marble is not a dye – it's a puddle of blood but I didn't even notice until now, and the warm fresh blood covers the soles of my feet.

The red stained windows over the Lycan Temple are broken glass with blood stains. As if bodies had been thrown through or been cut trying to climb out.

A scatter of bones lays about, like the inside of a monster's den.

Next up, I feel a flutter of something so intense, the marble slips through my fingers that widen on their own – willingly dropping the stone.

It slams into the blood, that becomes pretty glass when my vision 'clears' back to the purely fae-vision.

That moment.

That moment was –

"Do you see sense?" Sardonix asks me.

"I saw it," I whisper.

"Did you feel dread?" Onyx asks. I nod, meekly but visible enough. I keep my eyes down on the dyed marble.

"Did you feel scared?" Anubis asks me last, hitting the big red button.

The question I didn't want to hear.

Because it was the most accurate.

"I want to leave," I blurt, angry, furious – glaring now at all of them, feeling a little hysterical.

"You can," Onyx begins, and as I turn on my heel, he snarls, "Not yet bitch," I stiffen and turn back to face him, "After you have swallowed the perfect sphere – only then you may leave."

"If I don't?" I ask.

"You never leave," Sardonix's mouth twitches into a slight smile, the smile of a slaughterer who's sole job is to be bloody.

"Or you can stay," Anubis adds, deeper than the rest in his sincerity, "If you choose. After you have taken the sense into your system."

"Then I wish to live," I say it, "Obviously."

"So swallow it," Onyx orders me to, a direct and mean order. He's impatient.

I look at that orb on the ground like it's hell itself.

A hell I never knew.

A second was long enough.

All I had to do was take it down.

"I can't pick it up, I cannot physically make myself do it," I admit, "Someone has to put it on my tongue for me," I ask any of them to help with that.

"No, you'll do it with truest intent," Onyx denies me my request, "You'll do it or you'll die."

Sardonix stands up and reaches behind his throne. He brings out a polished sword in his Lycan hand. No rust. No blood. A perfect mirror, it's unneeded for a Lycan but in his hand it is also unnecessarily giant, it's the sword of an executioner.

"Every step I take, is a step closer to your end, Cleo," Sardonix starts to walk toward me.

His blooming violent love is clashing so violently within him, he will have no issue doing this to me.

An excited death was walking toward me.

"Who is to say you will let me leave, a Lycan's word is all I have," I cry out, refusing to pick the sphere up while Sardonix is at least ten large paces away from me. But every pace forward is a second sooner.

My time would be up.

"...we'll let you go alive..." Onyx promises, his fangs already drooling in anticipation of my decision.

"A promise to go alive is not enough. What about hurt. Traumatised. Screaming. What about unscathed? Can you promise anything else you will not do to me," I yell it, so quick, "Please."

...tiny fairy. It's over, Sardonix is like a lullaby in my head, trying to put me to bed like an over-tired child.

He is too close. He could split me apart there, or within my head as the poison he was inside.

I had no more time left.

Onyx was promising nothing else.

"You may leave alive," Anubis snarls it at me viciously now, desperate for me to listen, "Swallow the sphere of sense, Cleo – NOW!"

I look straight at him.

I hold my breath.

I nod.

Then I drop to my knees and I lean down to pick up the sphere with my mouth.

Either my head would fall off by the sword or the sphere of sense – but either way, both realities would hurt.

On my tongue it's heavy, and I rise up and throw my head back, swallowing the heavy weight of common sense.

It hits the pit of my stomach like a punch to the guts.

The terrible feeling from before, amplifies.

Is this true insanity?

At first the terror does not return.

Only a shock and a numbness as I lower my head and look around once again.

Sardonix is in my head, I can feel him there, but I ignore him as I get to my feet and look the twenty-three other Lycans over. I can only glance without tripping out. So my vision rests on Anubis.

My pretty Anubis is still pretty – although now I see the veins, the meat in his teeth, the scarred ears and broken jewellery. The gold paint on his skin was like a network of spells on his skin. He was more a monster. But he was my first.

My common sense has some strange rush making me stumble toward Anubis' throne.

Every part of me is extremely tense.

My fists are clenched, my jaw is tight, my neck is strained as I keep my gaze on his eyes and do not break eye contact.

His aura was still readable.

Anubis' aura was pure light when he looked at me, and it clashed the black aura unique to him. He was meant to be a monstrous demon but he truly loved the light of me.

Sardonix despised it. He was young and impatient.

Anubis cherished it.

My sense was saying to do the necessary thing. Since he saved my life with that order. Because I listened. I stop at his demon knee and I get down, with my hand on his leg, I look at him from below, out of respect.

"Thank you," it's all I say to Anubis, and I say it seriously.

It's probably the first two serious words I've ever said in my entire existence.

Anubis is hard to stare at, his intentions are still bold and extreme, he is just... a few seconds more patient than the rest, due to his age, he was most similar to Onyx.

I immediately stand up and I turn away from all of them, walking back into the blood, I splash to the exit of the Lycan Temple.

I don't acknowledge Sardonix.

I don't have time to acknowledge Onyx.

I could feel their gazes like bites already in and over my body, a possession of sorts. I didn't have to look at them and make it worse.

I only had a few more seconds of numbness before the other sense propelled me into a full blown sprint toward my freedom.

Disgusting, ugly, vile, demons. In a temple of torture, death and sex.

And yes, they still had huge cocks. But they were demonic and I could finally see what that meant.

They fucked with a way to embroil your lust and increase it.

Was it all an illusion?

They gave me freedom in my head. Some kind of extra choice.

The common sense was added value for my existence.

Demons thrived off that lack of value.

They were attracted to... what?

I think of Silvia. She had common sense, and a love of Lycans, and an ability to dive into an insane desire, and resurface, breathing the clear air.

I had never reached the surface.

Until now.

I hear a snarl of unholy proportions, from the gargantuan Lycan Temple. It's Sardonix, the head priest of that place. The snarl echoes straight for me like a spear.

I can't think any further, when my sticky feet hit the ashy soil of Hell, I look forward to the path that led to the Corridor to Die, and I run toward it. My wings were frozen in fright, they couldn't even beat, they were closed against my back.

What did I have to do now?

Fucking simple.

I had to go home.

I had to go home.

If.

Demons were bad, and now I actually understood how bad. Mischievous, illusionary and there. Always there.

Watching. Waiting. To attack.

People like me, who let their guard down.

But people with sense – well... people with sense didn't walk into their cursed doors in the first place.